Jeff Rauschert

Professor Wignall

CM 570, Section 1

2 December 2002

How Culture Defines

Our Views On Death

Views of death are unique. No one deals with death or views death the same way. In some cultures, death is welcomed. For others, death is looked at in a negative light (Madkour).

No one is right or wrong on how death is viewed, on grieving or on the rituals a particular culture goes through before, during and after death. What might be traditional for one group might be completely off the wall for another.

What this paper will do is look at how different cultures (American, Mexican American, African American and Asian Americans) view death and how they might grieve. It will also look at some spiritual processes and rituals that occur and the deep structure sources behind these behaviors.

How cultures view death and grieve

Death is often thought of as final — the end. But there are some cultures that see death as a single step in human existence. For many, the way people view and deal with death is influenced by their culture.

“Death arouses a sense of terror in people,” says James Pennebaker, psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “As a culture we have done our best to distance ourselves from the thing that arouses fear in us (Madkour).”

But shying away from death isn’t good for the mind, Pennebaker says. He claims people who talk to their deceased loved ones or talk about death with their family are using a positive approach in terms of bringing family and culture together (Madkour).

In the United States, where this direct avoidance mostly takes place, an American’s individualistic orientation takes precedence. People’s personal goals overshadow their allegiance to groups like the family. The loyalty of the individualist is very weak; they feel like they belong to many groups and are apt to change their membership as it suits them (Samovar and Porter 255).

The same applies in the death process. While a person might avoid death and the rituals that go with it, he or she might bereave at a later time. Sometimes, this grieving never occurs.

Collective cultures, on the other hand, like Mexico, operate differently when there is a death in the family.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross has delineated four categories of individuals who probably accept death more easily than others. These people do not celebrate death joyfully, nor with less pain or suffering, but with more acceptance and more understanding (Kübler-Ross, 163).

First are rural populations that come in contact with death daily and understand nature’s way of “clearing” to replenish the earth with new life. Mexico is by many standards still rural and its population certainly understands the ritual cycle of birth and death (Irish, Lundquist, Nelsen 70).

The second group who seem to accept death with more equanimity consists of the very young who are innocent and who do not yet know what life is about (70).

The third category includes the very poor. Poor people constantly come into contact with death because their poverty puts them in continual jeopardy. They suffer from malnutrition and poor health card — if they receive any care at all. The poor are also more likely to be involved in work that is dangerous and often leads to tragic, accidental death (70).

They feel all the agony of death, but they are more accepting of it because death is common in poor urban ghettos or in impoverished rural communities (70).

The fourth category includes those who are religious. Some studies suggest that religious people might be prepared to accept death better than non-religious individuals. To a religious person, death is part of the grand scheme of things. Many religions also believe in afterlife. It is what happens after someone dies that is important.

These four categories coexist in Mexico and help us examine their people and how they handle death.

For some Hispanics, both religious and secular, death is something to be celebrated and is the beginning of a new chapter in life (Madkour).

Take, for example, Mexicans and Mexican Americans of Catholic and other faiths. Many Mexicans and Mexican Americans celebrate Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

“It’s a celebration. We’re celebrating life and the people who have passed away,” said Rosalinda Ruiz, education chair of the Mexican Culture Committee at the University of Texas at Austin. “A lot of people think it’s a sad event but it’s not like that at all.” (Madkour).

“We accept (death), embrace it and live with it,” said Amelia Malagamba, an art and art history assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “Dying is a change of condition. It’s not the end of [life]. We do continue living in another sphere (Madkour).”

Some might refer to this as immortality and call it a hidden avoidance. Maybe it is. But it’s how the Hispanic culture chooses to deal with it that makes them unique. They place the well being of the family ahead of individual needs.

To see the reasoning, one only has to look at the deep structure of this collective culture. Hispanics generally place a lot of importance on family (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 85). This association goes on across generations. Both foreign-born and U.S.-born Mexican Americans prefer to live with their children if their health declines (Angel, Angel McClellan & Markides 467).

In the individualistic United States, most people place relatives under home hospice care or in nursing homes during their final days (Rauschert).

The continuity between the living and the dead is also elaborated in ideas of reincarnation, or the concept of immortality mentioned before. Reincarnation is found in many non-literate, non-Western cultures as well as in the major Eastern religions. Among the Central Eskimos, for example, the name of the last person to die is given to the first child born thereafter, as the child is considered the reincarnation of the dead person (Backer, Hannon, Russell 276).

A view similar to that of Mexican Americans is in the African American culture.

Like Mexico, there are some African Americans who fall into each of Kübler-Ross’ four categories: the poor, the rural, the young and the religious (Kübler-Ross 28).

Through slavery, segregation and discrimination, African Americans have developed a perspective on death that is unique to this ethnic group. Views about dying are further influenced by violence where African Americans live, high rates of death from common disease, and limited access to health care for parts of the population (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 71).

Because the current African American population is a heterogeneous group, it is impossible to make a definitive characterization of death for every member of the population (72).

African Americans are so vividly diverse because they are a group robbed of much of their cultural identity. Slaves were forced to adopt a new language and religion and were even given different names. They were told they could not keep their own culture, so they attempted to forge a new one (Samovar and Porter 126).

Some African Americans are descendents of slaves and have been part of the United States even before its independence. Some have emigrated from other places in the Western Hemisphere, such as the Caribbean, bringing a history of freedom or at least greater success in throwing off the constraints of oppression. Others have migrated from Africa with no history of slavery. There is also geographic location to think about (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 72).

African American rituals that revolve around death also draw on religion. The majority of African Americans are Christian, primarily Baptist (Ellison and Sherkat 154). African Americans believe in heaven and that heaven is a divine rescue from slavery, poverty and social isolation (Lincoln and Mamiya 230).

Religion, again, is often looked at when trying to determine the origin of death in the African culture. Asante myth, says humans were once given the choice between immortality and death. They chose death. According to the myth, when early humans started experiencing death, they pleaded with God to put a stop to it. Their request was granted. For three years no one died; however, no one gave birth either. The people could not bear this and again pleaded with God to grant them the ability to have children, even if it meant accepting death also (Berger, Badham, Kutscher, Berger, Perry, Beloff 15).

Many African Americans might not be aware that some of the present day traditions and customs of death have been passed down from the oldest living members of the community, in the form of expressions, sayings, superstitions, religious beliefs and practices, and music. Many of the stories and superstitions relating to death and burials are still believed today, especially in the Southern United States.

Death to African Americans is not an event that just occurs, is “handled,” and then forgotten about. When one dies, there is a series of events that usually take place. After the approach of death family members are often notified right away, not just the immediate family members, but every relative and friend of the deceased. Old beliefs and superstitions are remembered and acted upon. An old belief is that the dead cannot be buried on a rainy day. The sun is a sign that the heavens are open and welcoming for the deceased one. If it rains while a man is dying, or if lighting strikes near his house, the devil has come for the soul. Thus, the family members often attempt to bury the dead on a sunny day (North by South).

The final group this paper will address is the Asian culture. Because the term “Asian” is a category that lumps together more than 30 countries, I will focus on the five largest Asian/Pacific Islander American (APIA) groups that reside in the United States — Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Japanese Americans, Asian Indian Americans, and Korean Americans.

Chinese Americans are the largest APIA subgroup and is also the most diverse. Because they were the first Asians to immigrate in large numbers, literature about their attitudes toward death and dying are more abundant than other APIA populations (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 108).

Some believe the word death and its synonyms bring bad luck and are rude and disrespectful. In some instances, words that have sounds similar to the word death also are considered to bring bad luck and should not be used. The color white also is associated with death in some Chinese traditions. This brings up the question of how a Chinese patient might feel in a hospital surrounded by nurses and doctors in white uniforms (108).

This is an example of culture shock, a misunderstanding in cross-cultural interactions (Samovar and Porter 273).

In Hawaii, when Chinese Americans at senior centers and churches were approached to participate in a survey on end-of-life options, three fourths of them declined, saying it would be bad luck to do so. Among the 48 that did respond, however, only six percent agreed it was bad luck to talk about or plan for death. But they were more likely than Caucasian and other APIA groups to agree with statements indicating there was no need to plan for death. This is evident in the high level of agreement with the statements, “If it is your time to die, you will” (60 percent) and “It is in God’s hands” (42 percent) (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 109).

The importance of family members in health care decision making with Chinese American adults have been emphasized by many authors (Der-McLeod, Muller and Desmond 323, Orona et al. 338, Yeo 139).

Family members tend to define their duty as protectors of patients. They try to make their remaining time as comfortable as possible. The need to keep information about the disease and prognosis from the patient is important to avoid suffering and sadness. However, it is interesting that, in the Hawaii surveys, 100 percent of the 48 Chinese American respondents (who were likely more acculturated than the three fourths who declined to participate in the study) said they would want to be told if they were fatally ill. Eighty-four percent said they would want to make their own decisions (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 110).

In some cases, the expectations or insistence of family members from Chinese backgrounds that the patient be protected from knowing of a terminal illness for fear he or she will give up hope has come into serious conflict with members of the health care team intent on applying principles of individual autonomy (Muller and Desmond 325).

This is a conflict in cultures: the American individualistic culture being pushed on a collective culture that is one of the oldest cultures in the world (Samovar and Porter 79).

If the physician feels it is important to tell the patient without the family’s permission, he might do so in private. In these cases, the patient will often find out his or her prognosis and then simple pretend ignorance with the family (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 110).

All-in-all, because the Chinese American population is so diverse in religion, region of origin, education, background and acculturation level, there will be enormous differences in traditions around dying. Health care workers should simply ask about any traditions during a patient’s stay or in the event of death (111).

Filipino Americans are the second-largest APIA group. There is a vast heterogeneity among Filipino Americans who immigrated to the United States in different waves for different reasons from a country with more than 1,000 inhabited islands and more than 70 languages and dialects. Because of the long Spanish domination of the Philippines, most Filipino Americans are Catholic (111).

The 1990 census states 95 percent of Filipino Americans over 65 were born outside the United States and that many elders continue to immigrate to join their adult children. However, many younger Filipino Americans were born in the United States (United States). These young Filipino Americans tend to have strong “Americanized” values and attitudes (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 111).

Deeply religious Filipinos tend to believe illness happens for reasons that they often attribute to God or a higher power. Individuals also base some of their belief in personal responsibility. Others believe good and evil spirits can prevent, eliminate or induce illness. Other important issues that might affect interactions between providers and Filipino patients and their families in the context of terminal illness include a strong respect for elders, a reliance on family as decision maker in case of illness, strong expectations of care by the family, and culturally based practice of indirect communication to avoid stressful interpersonal conflicts and confrontations (112).

The Catholic religion is a major influence on Filipino Americans. Those who were the most recent immigrants and least educated expressed the view that Filipinos do not like to talk about death or funerals (Ravina) but might have picked cemetery plots. Those who were better educated had thought about or executed living wills and funeral plans. In a 1996 survey, 82 percent of Filipino respondents agreed people should prepare for death by writing living wills. Their definition of a dignified death meant a peaceful death free from pain and not being burdensome to others (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 112).

Japanese Americans, as a whole, are the most acculturated and assimilated of the APIA subpopulations. However, they are a heterogeneous subgroup with significant generational, geographic, and historical differences that can influence their behaviors, attitudes and beliefs about dying and death (Kitano 111).

Attitudes toward the end of life differ greatly by the five distinct generations of Japanese Americans living in The United States (Braun and Nichols 262; Kalish and Reynolds 180).

The Issei are the early pioneers who immigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20^th century. Although most Issei now are deceased, they maintained the traditional Japanese culture and language. The Nisei are the American-born descendants of the Issei. They attended American schools and English was their primary language, but they also went to Japanese–language schools and churches. Both the Issei and Nisei endured significant anti-Japanese discrimination, although those in Hawaii experienced much less than did their mainland counterparts. More than 110,000 Americans of Japanese descent were forced from their homes on the West Coast during World War II and detained in 10 concentration camps (Kitano 118). The Sansei are the children of the Nisei, and they Yonsei are their offspring. The Kibei are Nisei educated in Japan who later returned to the United States. Other Japanese Americans include those who immigrated after 1965; the Shin-Issei are primarily businessmen and their families, and the Newcomers include the war brides of U.S. servicemen (131). Nikkei is a relatively recent term used to refer to Japanese Americans as a whole.

Nikkei families have maintained a high degree of traditional Japanese culture and values from Confucian, Buddhist, Shinto, and Samurai traditions. These cultures emphasize collectivity over individuality, obligation and duty over free will and hierarchical structure and interdependence over self-reliance and independence within families (Kitano and Daniels 87).

Most Japanese Americans belong to either a Japanese Buddhist sect or a Christian denomination. But attitudes toward death seem more philosophical and ritualistic than religiously based, because it is difficult to assess the influence of religion on Nikkei. Most Japanese Buddhists in Hawaii believe death is part of the life cycle and that the faithful are reborn into Nirvana, which is a better place than earth. (Braun and Nichols 263).

Both Buddhist and Christian Nikkei tend to maintain a controlled acceptance of death (Kalish and Reynolds 314), which has been described as “death-accepting compared to the American “death-denying” culture (Hirayama, 163).

Four studies have begun to examine attitudes toward death and dying maintained by specific Nikkei subgroups. Kalish and Reynolds (326) interviewed a Los Angeles population, including many Issei. Nishimura and Yeo (68) interviewed older Nikkei in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Braun and Nichols conducted focus groups in Hawaii. Braun also surveyed the attitudes toward end-of-life issues of older and younger members of five ethnic groups in Hawaii, including Japanese Americans, 90 percent of who were born in Hawaii. These results are not necessarily representative of all Japanese Americans, but they provide baseline information for establishing culturally sensitive and appropriate services for Nikkei.

In Japan, it is believed a patient should not be informed of a terminal illness because he or she would lose the strength and hope needed to cope with the illness. However, half off the Los Angeles respondents thought a dying person should be told of the terminal condition. Most said they would want to be told and would accept death peacefully rather than fight it. Others responded that they would not want the family to know if they were about to die because the family would worry too much. They would feel guilt by placing such a burden on their families (Kalish and Reynolds 339).

The younger Los Angeles population, however, wanted more control over their life situations and found the attitude of acceptance difficult to understand (341).

In the Hawaiian study, all but one of the 49 Japanese American respondents said they would want to be told if they had a fatal illness, and 91 percent said they would want to make their own decisions. Fear of dependence and fear of burdening their families were given by 90 percent of the interviewees as influences on their decisions about treatment if they were fatally ill (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette).

Nikkei Buddhists in Hawaii felt planning for death is a good idea (Braun & Nichols 264). All of those who were interviewed in the later survey expressed similar attitudes, saying a person should prepare for death by completing a living will. In addition, 98 percent said a surrogate decision maker should not be chosen (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 120). Nishimura and Yeo (72) found that the most common reason for use of advance directives in the California sample of older Japanese Americans was to avoid becoming a burden to their children. Most of the older Nikkei expected important medical decisions to be made by physicians and/or family members if they were incapacitated.

Nishimura and Yeo (73) also found that the durable power of attorney for health care was confusing; few people had a reasonable understanding of life-sustaining technologies. Overall, an advanced directive was viewed not as an expression of individual rights but rather as an escape from life-prolonging treatment.

Nikkei in Hawaii believed Buddhism would support a family’s decision regarding withholding or withdrawing life supports. They maintained that a natural death is preferred of the use of life support (Braun and Nichols 264).

Despite the cultural norms, it appears Nikkei families attempt to bring together their cultural heritage with those of modern American life when making end-of-life decisions. Even though Nikkei, as a whole, are becoming more assimilated, health professionals and other service providers cannot assume that individuals have abandoned their centuries-old customs toward the end of life.

The Asian Indian view of health and illness is founded on traditional medicine, which sees illness as a disruption of homeostasis in the five universal elements (water, fire, earth, wind and ether). Family involvement is the norm when someone is ill in India. The family attends to all the medical needs and provides psychological support. Like many other APIA cultures, families are protective of those who are ill and prefer not to discuss information about a terminal illness or impending death because it might cause the patient to give up hope and die (Braun, Pietsch, Blanchette 116).

A study on Korean Americans in Los Angeles showed less than half believe a patient should be told about a diagnosis of terminal illness. Seventy-five percent of Korean Americans also believed the family should make decisions about life support rather than the patient (Blackhall, Murphy, Frank, Michel & Azen, 823).

Another study examined attitudes toward advanced directives. The Korean Americans had the least knowledge of advanced directives, with only 13 percent knowing what they were. Those who did had negative attitudes toward them. None possessed an advanced directive, compared to 28 percent of European Americans, 10 percent of Mexican Americans and two percent of African Americans. Korean Americans were also likely to agree to begin life support (74 percent) and less likely to stop it (Blackhall, Murphy, Frank, Michel & Azen, 824).

The one common thread that is learned from multiple cultures, as different as they are, is that you must face death squarely if you are to deal with it constructively. Whether it is you who is dying, one you love, or one in your professional care, the end of life is not easy for anyone to accept. But the fact does not go away if you ignore it.

One of the early responses many people have to death is despair. It is easy, at this point, to give up on living because there doesn’t seem to be enough time left. Learning to throw off that feeling of despair and replace it with one of joy at the opportunity to really live is hard but rewarding. Learning to reinvest yourself in living when you have lost someone you love is difficult, but only through doing so can you give some meaning to that person’s death (Kübler-Ross 74).

Spiritual processes and rituals

Funerals have existed since the beginning of mankind. Sixty thousand years ago, Neanderthals buried their dead with a ceremony (Fulton 1976, 23). They have existed in some form in all societies. The funeral has been universally important for both the society and the individual. It is a rite of integration as well as separation (Fulton 1979, 249-253).

The funeral serves to reinforce the integration of community, family, religious groups, and ethnic groups, while helping the bereaved begin their separation from the deceased. In the past 20 years, the funeral in American society has been under attack as a meaningless ritual involving extravagant expense. Therefore, alternatives to funerals have become popular (Backer, Hannon, Russell 243).

Cremation has existed throughout history, but did not develop in the United States until 1876, when a Washington physician set up the first American crematory. But cremation never really became popular. In 1976 only slightly more than seven percent of the dead in the United States were cremated (Consumers Union 157).

But in 2000, that number had climbed to 26 percent (Dizon). Cremation numbers remain low in some areas, particularly the South and Midwest, but continue to grow nationally. By 2010, cremation is projected to rise to 40 percent across the nation (Dizon).

The No. 1 reason cited for choosing cremation in a national survey was cost. On average, cremation is one-third the cost of burial (not including the burial plot or upkeep), ranging from about $500 to $1,500 (Dizon).

For many small towns in the United States, there has always been the custom of pulling over to the side of the road when a funeral procession passes. That era has itself passed away, and the polite ritual of paying respect to the funeral cortege is nearly obsolete, surviving “only in the little towns and in a few inner-city neighborhoods” (Bragg, Rauschert).

This would hardly be news to most American funeral directors. Indeed, funeral service professionals in all regions of the country could easily have added to the list many other funeral customs and traditions, some of them local and regional, that are fading from view or undergoing remarkable transformation. The rise in cremation, the drop in attendance at funerals, the increased personalization of funeral services, the softening of zeal for religious rituals, the increase in more festive memorial services, the decreasing concern for a viewing, the appearance of memory tables displaying photos and artifacts, the use of personalized videos in funerals, the reversal of the customary sanctuary to cemetery progression — these and other trends are signs that the traditional American funeral is in radical transition (Rauschert).

But was there ever such a thing as “the traditional American funeral?” Yes, in broad terms there was. As recently as 1979, anthropologists Richard Huntington and Peter Metcalf, who surveyed American death practices and expected to discover customs and rites as diverse as the American population itself, could register their surprise that what they found was not variety but uniformity:

Given the myriad variety of death rites throughout the world, and the cultural heterogeneity of American society, the expectation is that funeral practices will vary widely from one region, or social class, or ethnic group, to another. The odd fact is that they do not. The overall form of funerals is remarkably uniform from coast to coast. Its general features include: rapid removal of the corpse to a funeral home, embalming, institutionalized “viewing,” and disposal by burial. (Huntington and Metcalf 167)

Twenty years ago, there was, broadly speaking, an American way of death, what we could call “the village funeral.” The village funeral was an elaborate series of customs and rituals that began with a viewing at the home (or funeral home), moved to the house of worship for a traditionally patterned religious service, processed to the graveyard for a brief service of farewell and burial, and reassembled in the home for a familial time of eating and remembering. Now, however, this ritual consensus is breaking down and none of the elements of the village funeral is stable or homogeneous any longer (Long).

It is tempting to see the decline of the traditional village funeral as basically a matter of fluctuating cultural taste. Fashions in funerals, like those in clothing and cars, simply change over time, and woe to the funeral service professionals who do not keep their surfboards on the crest of the moving wave (Huntington and Metcalf 181).

However, the issues are deeper than mere fads and fashions. The transitions in American death practices reflect profound shifts in our social and religious attitudes. Sacred rituals, like the funeral, rest on solid convictions and underlying beliefs, and when funeral customs change it is a sign of a wavering worldview. When we peer beneath the surface, we find that the rituals of the village funeral rested on three foundation stones: sacred space, sacred community, and sacred story. All three have eroded in the past two generations (Long).

In previous generations, the home, the sanctuary, and the cemetery were all fixed points on the sacred compass, places of holy memory and meaning. This does not mean, of course, that homes were always idyllic, houses of worship always full and faithful, or cemeteries always well-kept and respected. What it does mean is Americans did not think of their sacred beliefs simply as inner attitudes preserved in the secret shrines of the heart and the imagination; they connected their beliefs with places — home and church, synagogue and tabernacle, cemetery and retreat, school and camp (Rauschert).

When Abraham Lincoln stated in the Gettysburg Address: “We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract,” he was speaking both to and from the assumption that cemeteries are spaces of sacred meaning and reflection (Long).

The sense of sacred space has diminished, partially because of patterns of mobility in American life, but not entirely (indeed, statistically speaking, Americans are slightly less mobile in terms of length of residence than we were in the 1950s). It has more to do with the lack of deep ties that bind one to a particular locale; Americans do not have a strong sense of belonging to a place, of being able to call anywhere home (Long, Rauschert).

When, for example, a 75-year-old man dies in Naples, Florida, chances are good that he moved there from Michigan at retirement, that his daughter lives in California and his sons in New York and Kentucky. There is no “home place,” no family plot at the cemetery, no common sanctuary. At least some of the reason why Americans seem increasingly nonchalant about the respect paid to the body of the deceased has much to do with this loss of a sacred sense of space (Long, Rauschert).

Along with the loss of sacred space, there is an accompanying shift from a strong sense of community with sacred obligations towards others to a notion of self-reliant individuals who choose to form voluntary alliances with others. In the past, if, say, your druggist died, you went to his funeral. It did not matter whether you were close friends with the druggist, or even if you were personally fond of him. His death inaugurated a set of community-based rituals in which you knew your role and responsibility. Ironically, a good indicator of the scope of this shift from community to individualism can be seen in the exceptional cases, the cases that run against the norm, those occasions when a socially significant person dies. When a popular high school coach, a well-regarded civic leader, or a physician noted for loving and unselfish contributions to others dies, the funeral is often a highly public event and well-attended by people from every sector of society. In other words, the deaths of people who, against the cultural drift, have transcended individualism and become beloved public figures trigger a reversion to the early village funeral patterns. The newer and lonelier rituals of individualism can be seen all the more clearly by contrast Long, Rauschert, Samovar and Porter 61).

The traditional creeds and religious institutions of Americans have lost at least some (perhaps much) of their traction. Americans are still among the most religious people in the world, but not as pervasively in traditional, structured ways (Long).

If the present trends continue, funeral directors and clergy can expect an increase in the pressure to become “interior decorators of ritual,” designing environments, ad hoc services, and individualized occasions that suit this or that whim. In one sense, who cares? Funeral directors are already skilled in sensing and meeting individual preferences, and any clergy who perform weddings are quite experienced in meeting a myriad of requests (Long, Rauschert).

In Mexico, death is present everywhere. It is in the literature, on murals and on the streets. It is a historical reality one is aware of when visiting museums. It is an everyday occurrence in poor and rural areas. Death can even be seen as a companion, or sometimes as a lover. Sometimes it is viewed as a woman, other times as a man (Irish, Lundquist & Nelsen 76).

Mexican American funerals generally follow the pattern of a Catholic service. Everything possible is done to bring a priest to the bedside of the dying person to administer the lat rites. Funeral arrangements are made as quickly as possible, and are usually heavily attended by many family members. A prompt burial is also desirable (Rauschert).

Traditionally the Catholic Church does not encourage cremation. However, it has softened its stance in recent years. If cremation is requested, the church will ask that the body be present for a memorial service and then cremation will take place (Rauschert).

Friends and relatives in rural areas will come to the funeral home or sometimes the home of the deceased where the body is laid out. If the wake is held in an urban setting, it is more likely that the body will be on view in a mortuary. The ceremony in the church follows the usual ritual pattern. The priest will say kind words for the deceased. Family members will be there to mourn. All the friends, extended family, and the extended community make every effort to be there for the funeral service. Despite the acceptance for death discussed earlier, an openly emotional response to death is accepted. No one is ashamed to cry and freely express his or her grief (Irish, Lundquist, & Nelsen 76, Rauschert).

Children are taught early to accept death in a very informal way. They are trained and expected to be a part of the wake and of the church service and burial. When the body is lowered into the grave, relatives will often take a handful of earth and throw it on top of the casket before cemetery caretakers come to fill the grave (Irish, Lundquist & Nelsen 76).

Not much is made over the body; it is simply present. People may occasionally go and look at the deceased, but for the most part they are talking and socializing, with children running about. It is very much like a wake in most other parts of the world: an occasion to bring family together in sorrow and to renew friendships and family ties. During the nine days that follow the death many prayers are said. People take candles to church to light at the altar. Every effort is made to console the grieving family (76).

The emotional response is perhaps more open than in the United States. People may also stay longer at the visitation service or at the gravesite (Rauschert).

Although there is no one pattern of mourning behavior in one culture, in general one thinks of funerals in the white culture as more formal and less emotional than within black rituals. Pentecostal and Southern Baptist funerals, with long emotional sermons and wailing and sobbing in response from mourners, have become stereotypes for all black funerals. But black funeral customs represent a unique blend of African and European customs dating back to the period of slaver and before (Irish, Lundquist & Nelsen 55).

Traditionally, especially in the South, a number of customs remain as features of African American funerals. “Flower girls” — the female counterparts of pallbearers — give special attention to the closest family members. “Nurses” in white dresses care for those overridden with emotion. The reader of the obituary at church generally is chosen fro within the same social class. Solos, choir renditions, or other musical offerings are also important (63).

Historical black funerals in America have numerous elements based on traditions from West Africa. Again, these are more popular in the South. Modern nontraditional black funerals are more prevalent in urban areas, in the North, within the upper economic and social classes with more education, and among Catholic and mainline Protestant congregations. Thus, the funeral customs of many African Americans have come to be similar to those of the dominant majority, although they remain distinctive in some ways.

Because cremation is chosen in the many Asian countries as well (Gamage), Asian Americans have started to choose it as an alternative to a burial. Pre-funeral customs for Chinese Americans differ quite a bit. Some families will pre-arrange a funeral, while others still think of it as bad luck to somehow precipitate death. Another major activity for some Chinese Americans deep-rooted in their culture might be choosing a gravesite. This might take several months or years. To pick a site, some might consult a geomancer, one who has studied the art of divination by means of signs derived from the earth. Certain places are considered more auspicious than others (Irish, Lundquist, & Nelsen 84).

The direction of which the casket is placed is thought to have an influence upon the future of the deceased’s clan. All edifices should be arranged to be in harmony with nature in order to bring luck, health, wealth, prosperity, stability, and nobility to those remaining in the living world.

Filipino Americans are the fastest growing and second largest Asian group in the United States (United States). Filipino Americans, as mentioned before, have several superstitions about death. Here are several:

The person that passed away should not be holding a rosary. It represents continuity, which means death will continue on throughout the family. Also, if a rosary is laid with the deceased, the rosary must be cut to break the cycle of death within that particular family. At the wake, Filipino American families of the deceased usually prepare food for those who visit. People do not take any of the food with them or it is believed a death in that person’s home shall follow (Gamage).

Anyone who comes close to the coffin during a viewing should not shed tears and let it drip onto the deceased. This, according to Filipino belief, will prevent the deceased’s soul from resting in peace. Also, if a child is present at the burial, then he or she must be carried over the burial site prior to covering the body. This ensures that the deceased will not take the child next.

Filipinos are taught to not attend two viewings in one night. This will result in one’s own death or a relative of theirs to pass away within a year. Also as a sign of mourning, family members wear black clothing or a black ribbon during the entire first year after the death. Some Filipino Americans even believe in the tale of the “death man,” also referred to as a hollow man who can take away life or bring on illness to someone (Gamage).

Japanese American funerals have an interesting tradition similar to that of a memorial given in a U.S. setting. When attending a Japanese American funeral, it is customary to offer a Koden — a monetary offering that is given to the family in an envelope upon your arrival to the funeral or memorial service. In the United States, an employee of the funeral home might do this. The amount is usually determined by how much money one has received in similar circumstances from the deceased or their family if they know them.

Many Asian Indians in America prefer to die at home, and there are specific rituals and practices in each religious community. Many believe suffering is due to karma, which is inevitable. When close to death, family members are likely to be present in large numbers. A dying person may wish to be moved to the floor, with an idea of being close to the mother earth. Family members will prefer to wash the body after death. The preference is also for cremation. The mourning Hindu family may prefer to have a Hindu priest perform a prayer and blessing. It is important that the family have privacy after the death of a family member to allow for the religious rites to be performed. It is an accepted practice for family members and others to have an open expression of grief. After cremation there is a mourning period of from 10 to 40 days. Most Asian Indian Americans do not agree to a post mortem examination or organ donation.

There is little documented about Asian Indian Americans and the rituals they perform during and after death. Most of this is because they are such a collective culture and do not share much of themselves with others. Also, many families choose to perform a funeral by themselves and not involve clergy or a funeral home (Braun, Pietsch & Blanchette 112).

Korean American funeral customs have been changing since the 1980s because of industrialization, urbanization, Christianity, and the influence of Western culture. Burial patterns have become simpler, more secular, and more practical. This is seen in the shift toward cremations held in mortuaries rather than burials held in homes. The emotional aspect of funerals is dwindling and social support for the bereaved is moving from the family and neighborhood to urban and professional networks (Lee).

At most Korean funerals, which can last up to three days, people typically wear white. During these three days, nobody sleeps as a show of grief and support for the family. For Korean Americans, the Western culture has influenced this as well. Many visitors wear black and no one would think of going without sleep for three days unless they were part of the immediate family. Korean Americans also choose to bury their dead on the third or fifth day, since the fourth day is considered unlucky (Madkour).

Conclusion

It isn’t a huge leap to find commonalities among cultures of native and non-native people. Everyone grieves. Missing those that have died is universal and something everyone has in common. According to Kübler Ross (3), as unlikely as they fit together, mourning is growing.

Although many funeral traditions have been lost, Americans of various ethnic backgrounds are beginning to rediscover the healing power of rituals that allow for grieving and a successful transition back to normal life. These rituals take on new forms daily.

Also, everyone avoids death in some way — directly or indirectly. Life is not the end for many cultures. For some, living takes on new meaning and benefits come out of death. For others, grief might never come or might be delayed. There are also some cultures that continue traditions set hundreds of years ago. Differences occur because, in almost all cultures, the family makes the final decision as to how their loved one is put to rest.

Across cultures, people may differ in what they believe and understand about life and death, what they feel, what elicits those feelings, the perceived implications of those feelings, the ways they express those feelings and the techniques for dealing with feelings that cannot be directly expressed. Grief is expressed so differently from culture to culture that it is ridiculous to use notions of pathology derived from one culture to evaluate people from another. The cross-cultural variations in the behavior of bereaved people are not random but arise out of societal ways of understanding the world. The context for cultural differences in patterns of behavior and of social support includes each culture’s sense of what is sane and healthy, as opposed to life- and health-threatening.

Differences are even present in American culture. We should not assume that somebody who speaks our language and comes from the same part of the world has the same beliefs and understandings and will express feelings in a familiar way.

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